As a result, Ushio did not agree to gamble the Imperial Guardian with Yugen, which left Yugen a bit disappointed.
It's a pity, as in this early Synchro version environment, the Imperial Guardian is still quite overpowered. Unfortunately, it's an external item not for sale, exclusively used by the Security Bureau's pursuit team, so even if you have money you can't buy it.
Moreover, it has the ability to counter the effects of the opposing monster, which Yugen feels is somewhat compatible with him...
However, it's just a white card, so it's no big deal. Ushio might have had a bad duel experience with Yugen and doesn't want to duel with him again, or perhaps he's just afraid to gamble.
After all, the Imperial Guardian is a pursuit-exclusive card, akin to a police-issued firearm. No matter how bold Ushio is, he wouldn't dare gamble such a thing, and if he lost, he'd likely end up in jail sharing a cell with Yusei.
Sure enough, Yugen quickly discovered that his reputation in this dueling hall was growing, and fewer and fewer people were willing to take him on in card gambles. People even began pointing fingers at him as he entered and exited the hall, whispering derogatory things like "incarnation of the underworld" and "the rising Dongxi."
So Yugen decided to quit while he was ahead, moved from one place to another, and continued to duel in different district dueling halls.
Just one day and he had gained quite a bit. He traveled back and forth across various dueling venues and card points, opened card packs, then sold off unwanted cards to exchange for new packs.
His judgment of card value wasn't entirely consistent with the outside market. Some weak cards that most people deemed useless in the current environment, Yugen found quite valuable. Conversely, some cards considered invaluable by the outside world, he found useless and sold at a high price.
Thus, in just one day, he had profited handsomely.
For example, there was one card that truly caught his eye.
[Electronic Fishman Gunman
Level 1, Attack Power 100, Defense Power 200
Tuner/Effect: If there is a Water Attribute Monster of level 3 or lower on your field, discard one card from your hand to Special Summon this card from the graveyard. When this card is used as Synchro Material, all other Synchro Materials must be Water Attribute Monsters.]
This is indeed a real master card, banned to this day in reality. Modern duelists can instantly see its broken nature—the ability to revive itself from the graveyard voluntarily, with the effect not limited to once per turn.
In today's Yu-Gi-Oh!, even things without "once per turn" restrictions are strong monsters, and this card even lacks the "once per turn" limit, so being banned seems only logical.
Yet despite its strength, the card's current world value doesn't seem very high.
However, Yugen could guess why. With only 100 Attack Power, it would easily be considered "trash" in the animated world, not fitting the value perspective of duelists in animation. Even if used for Synchro, it requires all materials to be Water Attribute.
The Water Attribute is known to have been relatively niche for years in the early days, not well-favored compared to major Light and Dark Attributes. Even in the animation, most duelists didn't prefer using Water Attribute card decks, so naturally, it received the cold shoulder.
This worked out for Yugen, who easily gathered three Fishmen without much effort.
And at this time, he happened to know a powerful Water Attribute card deck.
In reality, a Frog-themed card deck won the World Championship in 2010 in Long Beach, California.
The Frog card deck featured ultra-fast operational capabilities, easily retrieving and deploying nearly any resource from the deck, coupled with high-speed field-building abilities, and was further enhanced by gaining Synchro abilities with the infinitely recurring Water Attribute-exclusive tuner, Electronic Fishman Gunner, making it extraordinarily powerful in the environment at that time.
However, it didn't completely overpower the other decks back then.
For example, in the finals of that year's championship, the Frog deck met the strong counterattack of the previous world champion, "Black Feather." That match was fought to the brink of the cosmic frontier, with both sides exhausting all their trump cards, and the Frog narrowly won the championship.
Yugen had already nearly completed his Frog card deck before coming to this dimension, and now with some components that were missing from the previous dimension, another championship deck was nearly complete.
Speaking of which, the reigning champion Black Feather is also on his list.
Compared to the Frog, Black Feather, with its animated following, undoubtedly has higher notoriety. Black Feather represented the ultra-fast offensive strategy symbolic of early Synchro setups.
In the animation, as the card deck of Clero, who was also born in the slum Satellite District, most of the cards weren't too difficult to obtain. With deliberate opening of related card packs, Yugen had already gathered quite a few.
In fact, the background setup of the 5DS characters determined that the card decks of the main group were not hard to obtain. Yusei's Synchroist, Clero's Black Feather, and Jack's Resonator. Their characters were all born in the Satellite District, so aside from the few dragons that would inevitably seek their destined owners, the main decks didn't have rare cards contradicting the characters, making their main card decks relatively accessible.
However, Yugen remained somewhat curious about this.
Black Feather was a card deck that won the World Championship in reality, and after card aficionados developed the "Waste Doppelganger" deck structure, Yusei's deck was also a powerful mainstream top tier during that time.
It's truly bewildering that such strong decks would be disliked and discarded into the Satellite District's garbage in the animation.
...
...
New Tongshiyi, Security Bureau Headquarters.
The Security Bureau's highest officer, Leirex Godwin, stood at the window of the Security Bureau, his expression indifferent but his gaze deeply observing the bustling traffic below the city.
The automatic door behind him opened, and his subordinate Yego walked in, respectfully bowing.
"Officer."
Godwin cast a sidelong glance at him and asked.
"Have you gathered any information on Yusei Fudo?"
"Yes."
Yego spoke in a sharp voice, chuckling a few times and said,
"That Yusei Fudo is having a hard time. I inquired a bit, and the warden over there isn't easy to deal with. Yusei's going to have a tough time in there."
Godwin squinted his eyes, remaining silent.
"So what's next, Officer?"
Yego looked around, lowered his voice, and said,
"That Yusei Fudo slipped out from the Satellite District and secretly dueled with our King.
Though the news is blocked and no one knows about the duel, we know that the King must have lost that duel.
The King's unbeaten myth was broken, and if this fact were to spread, it would be very unfavorable for us. So you see..."
"Hmm."
Godwin, expressionless, spoke indifferently,
"Then let's eliminate him."
"...that man called Yusei Fudo."